Cayden
Dad just sat there in disbelief and put his head in his hands. I looked at Ace and saw tears streaming down his face.
"Ace?" I whispered.
He quickly hopped off the bed and ran out of the room. I glanced at my dad and uncle before following him. He down the hall and into an empty stairwell.
He sat in the corner, tears still pouring down his face and his hands gripping at his hair. I sat down beside him, hugged my knees to my chest, and laid my head on them.
All I could do was look at him. I had no idea what to do. How was I supposed to comfort my best friend who just found out he was my brother.
I just looked at him as he started to calm down. He was in the same position as me now, except his head was buried in his knees.
"Did you know?" He asked, his voice all shaky.
"No, of course not.". I told him as I put my knees down.
"You promise?"
"Yeah." I said quietly, hugging him.
"He was so close this whole time." He whispered.
"I use to ask my mom about him. She would get mad sometimes, but she would tell me things on her good days. And now I don't know if any of it was true or not."
"What would she say?" I asked quietly
"It would change sometimes. On some days she would say that he was too busy to come home and that he was working far away so that he could come back and give us the best life ever.
And on other days she would say that he was in the military fighting for us, protecting us every day. She would say that he always tried to come back to us, but they kept stationing him at different bases.
I'm not sure why she changed it. I guess she thought that I would be suspicious of it, but she still told me it. After a while, I just stopped believing her. I haven't really thought about him for a couple of years now.
And go figure the first kid that becomes my friend is my brother."
He ended laughing softly with tears still in his eyes.
I hugged him again and then we both got up. He wiped his tears and we left the stairs. Then we decided to get some snacks from the vending machine.
Leo
"I-it's y-you..." He stuttered pausing
"Leo, y-you're his father. I-it's a ninety-nine point nine percent match..." He said trailing off.
Oh my god.
Oh my god.
OH MY GOD!
I have another son.
Another son that isn't my wife's.
I lifted my head as I felt a hand on my shoulder.
I looked at my brother.
"You okay, bro?" he asked me.
I shook my head.
"No. No, I am not okay. I just found out that I have a kid, who is a couple of months younger than the ones I just got back. I don't even remember being with another woman."
"Well. You were a huge mess back then. You were always angry and getting drunk. I'm not surprised that you don't remember. Heather probably won't either, she was pretty depressed because of it."
"Really?"
"Yeah, Now that I remember one day you just came home and promised to get better. You said that you had really messed up and after that, you and Heather got better together and grew closer to the kids. Then you guys never talked about the incident, even when you continued to look for the twins."
I thought about what he said, trying to remember what was going on at that horrible time. I do remember drinking excessively. I was either always working or at a random bar or club.
I always tried to block that time out. It almost tore our family apart again. I was glad that I had my family to take care of the kids because otherwise, I don't know what else could've happened.
I could faintly remember waking up in another woman's house as I thought about that time. No clothes on and still drowsy from when I had been drinking. I briefly remember getting home and feeling guilty about it.
I remember talking to Heather privately about it and then we promised each other that we would get better. She went to her sister, who is a therapist, and talked about her problems. While I stopped drinking and worked on my anger.
I wonder how she's going to feel about this. I need to take the boys home and talk to Heather.
"I need to talk to Heather. " I mumbled getting up.
"Okay." Teo said.
We walked out of the room to see the boys sitting on the floor eating some snacks.
"Let's go boys."
They got up and walked in front of me to the door. We split up with Matteo and got into my car. As I started driving us home, I glanced back at the boys in the mirror and saw them watching something on Caydens' phone. They would let out some laughs here and there.
I turned on some quiet music and tried to think of ways I could tell my wife that Ace was my son. As we arrived at the house, I decided that the best possible way to tell her was straight up and private.
I could tell her first, then we could tell the rest of the kids together. We got out of the car and went inside. Luckily, I found her in the kitchen working on her laptop.
The boys went to Caydens' room and I got Heather to come to our room.
"So... We found out who Aces' father is."
"That's good honey. Who is it?"
I hesitated and took a deep breath.
"It's me. I'm his father."
She looked shocked and didn't say anything.
"Look, it was an accident. It happened a few weeks after the twins went missing. I didn't even know about him being mine until today. And I don't even remember when it happened because I was drugged. I'm sorry."
She didn't say anything. After a few agonizing minutes, she nodded.
"Okay."
I looked at her confused. What did she mean by that?
"Okay, what?"
"I understand. We were both a mess at that time and you were drugged and most likely drunk, so you couldn't help it. So, therefore I forgive you."
"Wonderful. So, you're okay with him staying with us?"
"Of course I am." She replied smiling.
"Great. Now we have to tell the kids. " I told her while getting up.
I slightly pulled her up when she grabbed my hand and we left our room. We walked to the living room and called all of the kids down.
It took them a few minutes, but they all came trickling in one by one.
The oldest twins along with Easton and Henry came in first. They all sat on a couch together. Then Mar came in followed by Ace and Cayden. They sat together with Cayden in the middle.
And our last three came in sitting on the last couch.
"What's this about?"
"This is about Ace."
"Who the fuck is Ace?" My oldest son asked.
"That is Ace." I said, pointing at my now youngest son.
Everyone's head turned towards him. He shrunk back in his seat and slightly waved at them.
"Why is this about him, dad?"
"Because he is your brother."
"He's what?" Half of the kids exclaimed.
"Really, Daddy. I get to have another brother."
Chris and James stood up angrily. I told my youngest sons to leave and they did, just as the boys started to talk.
"What the fuck, dad, you cheated on mom?"
"When the twins were missing too?"
I glared at them and they sat back down angrily.
"Yes, that's when it happened then, but your mother understands why it happened."
They both rolled their eyes.
"Why are we just now finding out about him?" Easton questioned.
"His mother was taking care of him, but died so now he's with us."
They nodded and then we were done. Everyone went their separate ways, still talking about it. I went to my office to sign some papers for the business.
After about an hour, Heather came in.
"Hey, Honey. It's time for dinner."
"Coming, Amore."
We went downstairs and sat down with everyone.
As we sat chef Tim gave us our food. I looked down at it saw that it was some garlic bread along with some broccoli and shrimp Alfredo.
"So, Ace what's your favorite color?" Makayla asked him.
"Um, it's white." He answered.
"What's your favorite movie?" Henry asked next.
"Spy kids." He answered after a few seconds.
And it went like that for the rest of dinner. Us just getting to know my now youngest kid. We also found out that he was learning how to play the guitar and Cayden was teaching him.
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